Kane drifted downward, a solitary speck in the vast, inky blackness of the abyss. The creature's tentacle, a living cable of immense power, dragged him deeper into the crushing pressure of the sea. It was not a smooth, slimy tentacle, but one that looked like a cloth woven with a thousand tiny, firing neurons. He could feel the strong grip of its fibers, a vise that was slowly, agonizingly crushing his left leg. The pain was searing, a constant, low-grade torture that threatened to shatter his bones.
He tried to cut the tentacle with his sword, but the fibers were impossibly resilient. His blade, which could slice through steel as if it were butter, merely scraped against the creature's tough exterior, sending a shower of sparks into the dark water. Kane looked at the nightmare creature, a being of unimaginable power that seemed to belong to an ancient, forgotten age. It looked like a certain plant he had heard about in his father's journals: a lotus. It was a ghastly gray in color, with a central core where various eye sockets seemed to open and close in a silent, unsettling rhythm. Its petals were the cloth-like tentacles that ensnared him, and in the center of its core, rows of impossibly sharp teeth were barely visible. It looked frail and barely old, a deceptive appearance that belied its immense power.
'First a tree, now a plant,' Kane thought, a grim, weary humor running through his mind. 'I need to close this fight as soon as possible.' He was already heavily wounded from the previous fight, his body a map of deep cuts and gashes. Every second he spent in this crushing depth was a second closer to death.
Suddenly, a new terror descended upon him. Other tentacles began to wrap around his face, slowly suffocating him. They coiled around his body, their grip so strong that he could feel his ribs protesting under the pressure. His sword, still clutched in his hand, was the only part of him that remained free. Kane struggled, but the grip was too strong, his body already heavy from exhaustion and pain.
He had a wild, suicidal idea, an audacious gamble that might either end his life or save it. He waited, letting the tentacles tighten their hold, allowing the lotus to draw him closer. He waited until he was at the very maw of the creature, until the vast, toothed maw opened wide. Then, the lotus swallowed him, and the cloth tentacles that had bound him were pulled back inside, leaving him in a pitch-black, suffocating chamber.
The inside of the creature was a nightmare. The core contained hundreds of rows of teeth, and a searing acid began to secrete from the walls, a corrosive fluid that immediately went to work on his body. Kane's skin began to bubble and hiss, the flesh melting away in a painful, visceral process. The searing pain was beyond anything he had ever experienced. It felt like every nerve ending was on fire, a thousand knives twisting in his flesh. Slowly, the acid began to dissolve the muscle, exposing his bones. Half of his skin dissolved, a truly horrific sight even in the darkness.
The pain reached a crescendo, a blinding white light of agony that threatened to overwhelm his sanity.
'Now.'
With a silent scream, he activated his Divine Transformation. The change was immediate and absolute. The pain faded into a dull throb, and a surge of power coursed through his veins, the raw energy of his Aspect. He could now see with his soul, his mind, and his body. The interior of the creature, a chaotic mess of flesh and acid, was now a vibrant landscape of soul threads, a web of life that he could manipulate.
'If the exterior is hard, let's see how hard the interior is,' he thought, a cold, focused fury replacing his fear. He attacked the interior of the creature like a madman, his blade a blur of motion. He didn't just cut; he tore at the very fabric of the creature's soul, ripping it apart from the inside. 'Die, bastard,' he thought, his every strike fueled by the pain and rage of a lifetime of suffering.
The lotus, a massive being of immense power, began to bleed. Its very essence, its soul, was being torn apart. The creature struggled randomly, its tentacles flailing in the water, its massive body thrashing in a silent agony. For a long, grueling period, it became a brutal tug of war between them, a battle of attrition to see who would fall first from their grievous wounds.
After a long, brutal fight, Kane heard the familiar, ethereal voice of the nightmare spell, a sound that signaled his success.
[You have killed a Fallen Beast, Heavenly Lotus.]
[You have received a Memory....]
Slowly, the nightmare creature faded, its vast body dissolving into the black water. Kane, his body a mangled mess of flesh and bone, was left floating in the crushing depths. The divine transformation had kept him alive, but now that the immediate threat was gone, the exhaustion was absolute. His consciousness, a fragile thread, was fading, slipping into the peaceful darkness.
'Crap... Is... this... it?' he thought, the thought a final, weary sigh. He was floating, his impending death a certainty. The weight of his wounds, the absolute emptiness of the sea, the profound exhaustion, it was all too much.
Suddenly, he felt a grip on his hand. A warmth, a living presence in the cold, unfeeling abyss. Kane's mind, a foggy mess, barely registered the sight of a person.
Sunny's Pov
Sunny felt that he was at the very end of his rope. He had put himself through so much abuse during these last few days that his body and mind were barely functioning. Now, it was hard to even remember when he had last slept. A day before climbing the Soul Devouring Tree in search of a special fruit, perhaps. Since then, he had lived through harrowing torture, spent countless hours on the verge of mental collapse to resist the effects of the enthrallment, mangled his hands to stay lucid, guided the boat through the terrors of the dark sea in absolute darkness, saw it being destroyed by the horrid dweller of the deep, and gave battle to that monster in the cold black depths, almost drowning as a result.
His body and mind were on the brink of shutting off completely. Despite that, Sunny stubbornly continued to swim, bringing himself and Cassie closer and closer to the giant stone hand that was rising from the water, as though trying to embrace the skies.
The dark sea was surging around him, still reeling from the effects of the light explosion that had rocked it sometime earlier. Tall waves were threatening to drown the two Sleepers, throwing them around like toys in a bathtub. Struggling against them was an almost impossible task. And still, he persisted, driven by a will he didn't know he possessed.
The dawn was drawing close, but for now, there was still nothing but cold, darkness, and danger all around them. Any second, something could rise from the depths of the abyss and put an end to their desperate attempt to save themselves. At least the immense tentacles were gone, perhaps scared away by the pain of being exposed to the searing light of Kane and Nephis's last battle.
By some miracle, Sunny eventually managed to reach the stone hand. Heaving Cassie up, he helped her climb onto the dark, coarse rocks and followed closely behind. Soon, they reached the open palm of the hand and crawled to its center, then fell down, utterly spent and exhausted.
For a long time, neither of them was able to talk. All Sunny could do was lay motionless, draw in raspy breaths, and try to stay awake. His mind was mercifully empty of thoughts. That was fine, because he didn't want to think. If he did, he would be forced to remember… remember what had happened to…
'Shut up!' The thought was a jarring, painful command. What was the point of remembering? He couldn't change anything.
The sound of the black water crashing against the base of the giant hand reminded him that the night was still not over.
Opening his eyes, Sunny tried to understand their current circumstances. Their shelter was slightly raised above the waves, the base of the giant thumb almost touching the surface of the dark sea. The palm was not very spacious, roughly half the size of the circular platform that had saved his life on his first day on the Forgotten Shore. It was angled upward, creating a slight slope. The fingers were higher above the waves and wide enough to accommodate a person, but they were bent upward toward the sky, making them less suitable to serve as a refuge.
'We need to get further away from the water.'
With that thought, Sunny tiredly stood up and bent down to touch Cassie's shoulder. "Cassie. Stand up. We have to move higher."
His voice sounded hollow and brittle, a fragile whisper that carried the weight of his exhaustion. The blind girl flinched and raised her head, her skin deathly pale in the absence of light.
"...Sunny?"
He nodded. "Yeah. It's me."
She was still in shock. Sunny could see that Cassie's mind was not all there yet, so he gently pulled her to her feet. "Come on, let's go. It's just a few meters."
She lingered, her body trembling. "What happened? I heard a… a sound… and then something was pulling me down…"
He gritted his teeth and tried to keep his tone even. "We were attacked by a sea monster. The boat was destroyed. I dove down and managed to find you, then swam to this pile of stones. It's not very high above the water, so…"
Cassie wavered, her face a mask of fear. "Where's… where's…"
Sunny hurried to interrupt her, unwilling to answer the next question. "Come, follow me. We can rest when we're higher."
Gently guiding the blind girl, Sunny climbed to the base of the giant hand's index finger, which was the highest point they could reach without climbing the fingers themselves. Sitting down on the cold stone, he rested his back against the giant phalanx and stared at the restless surface of the dark sea, his eyes cold and empty, a silent void.
Cassie was silent by his side. Her pale face was contorted, as though she simultaneously wanted to ask the question and dreaded the answer. Finally, gathering her courage, the blind girl whispered, her trembling voice barely audible: "Sunny. Where is Neph? Where is Kane?"
He stayed silent, not willing to speak the words out loud. Stupidly, he felt that if he spoke them, they would become the absolute truth. But if he didn't, there was still a possibility that they were a lie.
'I'm not answering.'
A few moments later, the familiar, crushing pressure appeared in his mind. The pressure grew and grew, making his head spin, a psychic force compelling him to speak the truth.
'I'm not!'
Then, the piercing pain came, a sharp needle of agony that twisted in his mind. Sunny stubbornly endured it. He lasted for much longer than he had ever done before, keeping his mouth shut until hot tears rolled from his eyes, his whole body shaking from the terrible suffering. But eventually, he was still forced to say those bitter words.
"They… They are g…"
Before he could finish, a subtle sound attracted his attention. It came from below, from the edges of the restless dark waves. Sunny's heart skipped a beat, a sudden, frantic rhythm against his ribs.
Out there at the base of the giant thumb, where the cursed sea was almost touching its stone surface, a pale white hand appeared from the black water and grabbed onto the rocks. Then, a tall figure slowly pulled itself onto the opened palm of the stone giantess.
His eyes widened in disbelief.
Feeling that something was wrong, Cassie turned her head and asked: "Sunny? What is it?"
He trembled and whispered, his voice a choked sob gripped with sorrow and disbelief. "It's Nephis and Kane."
An uncertain smile, a fragile hope, appeared on the blind girl's face. "Neph? Kane?! Are they alright?!"
Sunny found himself unable to answer.
No. Both of them were not alright. In fact, he didn't know how either of them were even alive. The sight was harrowing, a grotesque tableau of pure suffering.
The Starlight Legion Armor was shattered and torn, a useless shell revealing the mutilated flesh beneath. There was a horrifying, gaping wound on Changing Star's torso, looking as though almost half of her right side was missing. Sunny could see the sharp shards of broken ribs, the rivers of blood streaming down her legs, and the mangled mess of viscera spilling over the edges of the wound. He wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn't.
Another large chunk of flesh was missing from her thigh, exposing the shredded remnants of muscle and the white surface of the femur, which was cracked and barely holding together. Her right arm was severely damaged, too. In fact, it was almost torn off, hanging only by a narrow strip of skin and a few tendons, like that of a mistreated, broken marionette.
Even her face was not spared. One of Neph's eyes was gone, its socket crushed and shattered, the skin of her cheek was shaved off as though by sandpaper, leaving behind a mangled mess of bleeding flesh and broken teeth. The sight of her was harrowing and heartbreaking, a living monument to pain. It was apparent that Changing Star was about to die.
And Kane's situation was even worse. One of his eyes was gone, a raw, empty socket. His armor was almost completely destroyed. Some chunks of flesh around his thighs were totally gone, exposing the shredded remnants of muscle and the white surface of the femur, cracked and barely holding together. Some of his skin was melted off by the acid, so badly that Sunny was able to see the other side clearly through the gaps in his bones. His body was covered in blood, a macabre masterpiece of pain. It was apparent that both of them were about to die.
"Sunny? Why are you not answering?"
He glanced at Cassie and bit his lip, trying once again to suppress the answer that was fighting its way out of him. Something sharp and hot was stabbing at his heart, making his vision blurry with unshed tears.
Meanwhile, Nephis and Kane staggered and blindly stepped forward. Then, their legs buckled, and they heavily fell to their knees, splattering blood all over the cold surface of the stone. A terrible moan escaped from her lips as her cracked femur finally shattered, bone piercing through muscle and skin. Kane writhed in pain and started shouting, his voice a raw, animal sound of pure suffering.
Sunny felt as though he was thrown into his worst nightmare, an impossible scene of suffering. He wanted to scream, but his voice was gone, a silent gasp trapped in his throat. A deep, almost physical pain was tearing him from inside. He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to see this. And yet, he couldn't look away.
...That's why he noticed instantly when two white flames ignited in Nephis's eyes. The radiance grew brighter and brighter, spilling from her eyes, her mouth, the gaping wounds in her body. It was as though there was a flaming star burning in the place where her heart should have been, as though she was nothing but pure, sacred fire hidden behind a thin layer of human skin. At the same time, Kane's empty eye socket started to fill with a similar ethereal light, and slowly, new skin began to cover his exposed bones.
The incandescent radiance filled Changing Star's blood, turning it into streams of liquid white fire. The light slowly passed from her to Kane, igniting him to release his pain and suffering in a silent, blinding inferno.
As Sunny watched, frozen in place with his eyes opened wide, that fire began to melt and reshape her flesh. Slowly, her muscles repaired themselves, her organs returned to their proper places, and her bones reassembled themselves from the shards. Where there was nothing to replace a missing part, the fire took its shape and solidified, becoming new flesh and bone. With a terrible scream, Nephis grasped her almost severed arm and tore it away, then pressed it to the stump that was bleeding with the white flame. Soon, the mangled halves melted together, becoming whole again. And Kane's flesh started to regenerate at a slowly. The wounds began to fill in, his body slowly regaining its vitality, as if he was being rebuilt from the ground up by a divine force.
Shocked, he saw every terrible wound on both of their bodies heal, washed in the purifying fire. Soon, there was nothing but pristine white skin showing through the wide gaps in the shattered armor, and Kane's skin was a new alabaster color, perfect and unblemished. Nephis and Kane raised their heads, looking at them but not truly seeing anything. There was no recognition in their gaze, all understanding destroyed by the cruel crucible of the sacred fire and the divine transformation. Then, the last daughter of the Immortal Flame clan and the son of a forgotten killer closed their eyes and fell to the ground, losing consciousness.
...Finally, the first rays of sunshine appeared from beyond the eastern horizon. The dawn was coming.
In the end, Nephis and Kane had remained unconscious for an entire two days. Sunny and Cassie had watched over them, a silent vigil in the warm sunlight.
On the third day, Kane and Nephis finally opened their eyes and slowly rose, looking around with subtle confusion. Kane ran a hand over his face, feeling his now-healed skin, the new and perfect surface that covered the empty socket where his eye had been.
However, Kane and Nephis did flinch a little when their gaze fell on Sunny, who was sitting at the top of the giant hand's index finger and grinning from ear to ear at them. Frowning, Changing Star looked herself over, noticing the embarrassing gaps in her armor, and said: "Why are you smiling?"
Sunny gave her a mischievous wink and shrugged. "Look behind you."
Lingering for a few seconds, Nephis and Kane sighed and turned around, wondering what it was that he wanted them to see.
Behind him, a dark expanse of land was rising above the slope of the colossal crater. And on it, a tall city wall built of gray polished stone was towering over the giant chasm of the abyss. It looked ancient but still impenetrable, able to withstand the crushing pressure of the dark sea for a thousand more years.
They had made it. They had found the human castle.
Kane looked at the city, a profound sense of relief washing over him. 'Finally, we reached it,' he thought, and Kane decided to recount all the experiences he had gone through, a story of survival and triumph.
Cassie's Pov
Cassie was happy inside that her group had survived, but her face was still grim. She had seen various visions, and the joy of their survival couldn't shake the foreboding of what was to come. One vision, in particular, seemed to trouble her more than all the others, even though she had seen a lot. The vision she saw might come to pass faster than she realized.
She recounted the details in her mind. There was a high wall, and above the wall, a brutal fight was coming to a conclusion. Nephis was beaten until blood began to flow, and she was lying on the cold stone floor. On her, there was a person with blue skin covered with golden runes and a shock of silver hair. Cassie couldn't see its face, but that person had placed its foot on Nephis's chest, in a gesture of absolute dominance and cruel victory.
Cassie felt a powerful mix of rage and caution toward that person. But Cassie had one burning question in her mind, a question that resonated with the very fabric of her soul.
"Who are you?"
[End of Volume 1: Solstice]
[Next Volume: Tales of Crimson]